Medicare D No Help

(Editor's note: The following letter to city Labor Relations Commissioner James F. Hanley is published here at its author's request.

Dear Commissioner Hanley:

Since the time I received the memo from MBF [the Managerial Benefits Fund], dated Nov. 14, 2005, regarding the "new" prescription plan for retirees, I questioned the cost increase that I may encounter. The memo touted how the new plan "will save me money." I wrote several letters to [Director of Employee Benefits] Dorothy Wolfe regarding my concerns. I cited that when applying the new 2006 criteria, including the reduction in premium cost, to my 2005 prescription expenditure, it showed that I would have paid an additional $200.

I have reviewed the new plan with actual costs and this is the result: I have spent, as of June 30, 2006, a co-pay of $913.05 minus the savings for reduction of insurance cost of $607.50 ($1,215.00 annual savings/6 months), for a total out-ofpocket cost of $305.55.

Comparing that to the original plan and employing the prescription drug cost of $40 for name brand; $10 for generic drugs and $5 for diabetic-associated prescriptions, my expenditure would have been $557. Then I deducted the 90- percent payment of $501.30 from the superimposed plan, which means that my total out-of-pocket cost would have been $55.70, or a savings of $249.85 from the "new" plan.

The question is obvious. How is this highly touted modified Medicare Plan "D" saving me money? Did MBF do research on the possible cost impact on retirees who unfortunately need prescriptions to keep them alive? Additionally, I may be incorrect but [my] prior reading on the Medicare prescriptions plan was that if you belonged to a private prescription plan, you did not have to partake in the Medicare Plan.

If this is correct, why was this modified plan forced upon retirees? Why was the existing plan abandoned?

I appreciate what the MBF has done for managers, but I question the premature touting of the new retirees' prescription drug program as a cost-saving plan. A cost savings for whom? Certainly not for me or other retirees in need of multiple medications.

ANTHONY RINI

Editor's note: Mr. Rini is a retired Department of Design and Construction manager.